{"id":1830,"date":"2014-11-14T15:46:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T05:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2014-11-16T15:49:58","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T05:49:58","slug":"sophia-yin-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1830","title":{"rendered":"Sophia Yin remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Dr<\/a>The international veterinary community is mourning the loss of leading animal behaviourist and low-stress handling advocate Sophia Yin.<\/span>\r\n\r\nYin\u2019s death was announced via her website on September 29. <\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cShocked and saddened,\u201d UK dog trainer Victoria Stilwell posted on Dr Yin\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cYou inspired so many of us and made the lives of millions of people and their pets better. Your wisdom and humanity will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nYin said she had dreamed of being a veterinarian since childhood. She graduated from UC Davis in 1993, working initially in private practice. However, when it became apparent to her more pets were euthanased for behavioural reasons than medical ones, she undertook further study in animal behaviour, achieving a Masters in Animal Science in 2001.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nYin had been a vocal opponent of the view that dominance is the root of bad behaviour and that owners needed to show their pet \u201cwho is the boss\u201d.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIn animal behaviour, dominance is defined as a relationship between individuals that\u2019s established by force, aggression and submission in order to gain priority access to resources,\u201d she said. \u201cA dominance relationship is not established until one individual consistently submits. With this definition in mind, it is clear that most of the unruly behaviours we see in our pets are not due to a desire to gain higher rank. Consequently, dominance theory becomes irrelevant for most behaviour problems in our pets.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nYin was committed to a philosophy of leadership without force. She improved the wellbeing of animals in veterinary contexts, training veterinarians, technicians and nurses in creating a fear-free experience with low-stress handling.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nAccording to friend and fellow vet Steve Dale, Yin leaves a profound legacy.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cTo make the world better for animals \u2013 and as a demonstration of her underlying generosity, Dr Yin offered a variety of free handouts. She could have charged. She did not.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nThe Veterinary Information Network (VIN) postponed its scheduled rounds and hosted a session in honour of Yin. <\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThose close to her recognised in the past few weeks that she was overwhelmed and tried to help her,\u201d VIN co-founder Paul Pion wrote. \u201cShe was scheduled to present VIN rounds this Sunday night and had delayed the session to a future date to relieve her current overload.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/a>The rounds session, introduced by Yin\u2019s long-term mentor, advisor and friend Jim Wilson, tackled the subject of stress and depression in the veterinary profession.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nSocial worker Susan Cohen, who held a position at Manhattan\u2019s Animal Medical Centre for over twenty years, provided advice on stress. Cohen stressed the need for veterinarians to overcome perfectionism, set limits on their working hours, develop rituals to establish boundaries between work and personal life and to have \u201cthat difficult conversation\u201d with colleagues in distress.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cEvery moment of every day is a chance to take a deep breath and start over,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nANNE FAWCETT<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nVisit www.vin.com<\/a> for a transcript of the session. For further information about Dr Cohen visit www.petdecisions.com<\/a>. For information on low-stress animal handling, visit www.sophiayin.com<\/a>. You can contact Lifeline Australia around the clock on 13 11 14.<\/span><\/span><\/em>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The international veterinary community is mourning the loss of leading animal behaviourist and low-stress handling advocate Sophia Yin. Yin\u2019s death was announced via her website on September 29. \u201cShocked and saddened,\u201d UK dog trainer Victoria Stilwell posted on Dr Yin\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cYou inspired so many of us and made the lives of millions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[981,113,1573],"class_list":["post-1830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-in-memoriam","tag-news-2","tag-sophia-yin"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":398,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":398,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"The international veterinary community is mourning the loss of leading animal behaviourist and low-stress handling advocate Sophia Yin. Yin\u2019s death was announced via her website on September 29. \u201cShocked and saddened,\u201d UK dog trainer Victoria Stilwell posted on Dr Yin\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cYou inspired so many of us and made the lives of millions of people and their pets better...","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"981":{"name":"in memoriam","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=in-memoriam"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"1573":{"name":"Sophia Yin","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=sophia-yin"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}